User Support Forum

We're conducting a review of our PowerChurch database records to update membership status and outdated information, etc. This all started because we're going to begin using Constant Contact for email broadcasts we needed to make sure everyone's email address information and profile status was updated and correct in PowerChurch. We also want to use PowerChurch's built in church-directory printing capability. Previously I tracked email addresses separately via excel spreadsheet to use for our email broadcast system. It's time for those days to end and bring everything together.

While reviewing our database configuration, I'm wondering if over time we have made our profile categories and mailing list status too complicated. Does anyone have any recommended generic categories for Mailing List and "personal profiles" that we should be considering to make things simpler? We're a small congregation with under 75 weekly attendance. We do also have a nursery school.

We sometimes get into odd database states that lead to questions like:
"Why is the mailing category for the family MEMBER, but all family members personal profiles are "Inactive-Member".
or "If family's mailing category is INACTIVE-MEMBER, how can their personal profile be CONFIRMED-MEMBER?"
or "How should we code someone that has asked to have membership transferred to another church? NON-Member?"

Thanks for any suggestions,

Personal Profiles:
1. Confirmed Member
2. Non-Confirmed Member (usually children of confirmed members)
3. Non-Member
4. Inactive Member
5. Employee Only
6. Nursery Staff
7. Shut-In
8. Sunday School Only


Mailing List Categories:
1. Member
2. Friend of Church
3. Inactive Member
4. Deceased
5. Nursery Staff
6. Scouts/4-H
7. Shut-in
8. Sunday School
9. Visitor

svajo wrote: We sometimes get into odd database states that lead to questions like:
"Why is the mailing category for the family MEMBER, but all family members personal profiles are "Inactive-Member".
or "If family's mailing category is INACTIVE-MEMBER, how can their personal profile be CONFIRMED-MEMBER?"
or "How should we code someone that has asked to have membership transferred to another church? NON-Member?"

Here are some answers: #1 is easy, someone changed the personal profiles and didn't change the Family Mailing list.
#2 - Same as #1
#3 - We list our's as Trnsfrd/Removed - as you have to maintain contribution records for 4 years (at least)

Personal Profiles:
1. Confirmed Member
2. Non-Confirmed Member (usually children of confirmed members)
3. Non-Member
4. Inactive Member
5. Employee Only
6. Nursery Staff
7. Shut-In
8. Sunday School Only

#1 is kind of redundant. If they are a member, they should be confirmed.
We have #2 as Family Group Member - this covers anyone in the family who is not member of the congregation.
5 & 6 if they are employees, need not be kept in the Membership database. If they are members, they should be listed as members.
#7 should be listed as member, then the Mailing List Custom Codes can be used to mark that they are shut-ins
#8 - are they members, or do they only attend Sunday School? If the latter, then they are visitors or friends of the church. They can be tracked under activities as members of the Sunday School, or use the mailing list #custom codes to identify them.

Mailing List Categories:
1. Member
2. Friend of Church
3. Inactive Member
4. Deceased
5. Nursery Staff
6. Scouts/4-H
7. Shut-in
8. Sunday School
9. Visitor

Item #5 should not be tracked in membership. If they are employees, they should be listed in Payroll not here. If volunteers, again they are friends of the church, and you can track them in activities.
#6 - member? Visitor? - track in activities
#7 & #8 - see remarks under Personal Profile

Hope this helps.

Neil:
Can you share your list of suggested configurations and any other best practices for setting up the Membership module profiles and categories? We are trying to make sure our's is set-up correctly. I am inheriting the settings and configurations. I do not believe it was set-up correctly. Thank you!

UUCCGlenAllen wrote:Neil:
Can you share your list of suggested configurations and any other best practices for setting up the Membership module profiles and categories? We are trying to make sure our's is set-up correctly. I am inheriting the settings and configurations. I do not believe it was set-up correctly. Thank you!

I basically used what came as defaults, and added as necessary. I've included what we use for a local code, as its a good way to track whether or not you should send mail to families.

Family Mailing List Codes
Mailing Category
Deceased : self-explanatory. See Note 1
Friend of Congregation : other churches, people we want to send a copy of our newsletter to
Member - Active : self-explanatory. This is used on the family record if there are one or more members under a family
Member - Transf/Remvd : self-explanatory. See Note 1
Non-Member - Active : regular worship attendees who are not members - may have an envelope number
Non-Member - Deceased : self-explanatory. See Note 1
Visitor : self-explanatory

Mail Code - used when creating mailing list labels or output to a mail merge.
In the Military
Inactive List
No Longer Attends ?
Notified of Move
PO Returned Mailing
Send No Pledge Info
Warning for Removal - this is used to flag members who have not attended in a year, and to whom we're going to contact
Watch for Removal - we've sent a letter, and are awaiting a response.

Personal Status Codes - These follow the mailing list profiles.
Deceased
Family Group Member
Friend of Congregation
Member - Active
Member - Transfer/Rmvd
Non-Member - Active
Non-member - Deceased
Visitor

Note 1: We keep these records in the database for 4 years per IRS requirements for contribution records